Tunnel Suspects in U.S. Illegally

The four men questioned in connection to a threat to bomb one of two tunnels beneath Baltimore’s harbor were in the country illegally and now face deportation, officials said yesterday.

The men had been ordered to leave the country and missed a number of deportation hearings before they were detained Tuesday, said Mark Bastan, acting special agent in charge at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore.

“Technically, they were fugitives,” he said. “They’ve already been through the system. There are no more hearings for them.”

The four men — Ahmad Al Momani, 58, Mohamed Ahmed Mohamady Ismail, 30, Mohamed Mohamed-Abdelhamed, 38, and Suied Mohamad-Ahamad, 25 — will be held at a detention center in Wicomico County, Mr. Bastan said.

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Multiple businesses with Middle Eastern connections were raided. An arrest made at a restaurant named Safi’s Pizza could be connected to the tunnel threat, the source said.

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